Techniques to promote filtered messages based on historical reply rate

ABSTRACT

Techniques to promote filtered messages based on historical reply rate are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus may comprise a messaging interface component operative to receive an incoming message; and transmit the incoming message to a configured delivery mailbox on a client device; and a destination mailbox configuration component operative to determine one or more connection categories between the sender account and the recipient account; determine a predicted reply rate for the incoming message based on the one or more connection categories, a recipient reply history for the recipient account, and a sender reply history for the sender account; configure the delivery mailbox for the incoming message based on the predicted reply rate; identify a most-prominent connection category of the one or more connection categories; and configure the incoming message with a banner message indicating the most-prominent connection category. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application which claims benefit of,and priority to, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/808,934,titled “Techniques to Promote Filtered Messages Based on HistoricalReply Rate,” filed on Jul. 24, 2015, the entirety of which is herebyincorporated by reference.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/328,646, titled “Systems and Methods for Directing Messages Based onSocial Data,” filed on Jul. 10, 2014, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Users may interact with each other in a messaging system, sendingmessages back and forth to each other in a text-based conversationbetween two or more users. A user may have a user account associatedwith them in the messaging system, the user account providing an onlineidentity for the user, a destination for messages directed to the user,and generally coordinating the user's access to and use of the messagingsystem. A user may access the messaging system from a variety ofendpoints, including mobile devices (e.g., cellphones), desktopcomputers, web browsers, specialized messaging clients, etc.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basicunderstanding of some novel embodiments described herein. This summaryis not an extensive overview, and it is not intended to identifykey/critical elements or to delineate the scope thereof. Some conceptsare presented in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detaileddescription that is presented later.

Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques to promotefiltered messages based on historical reply rate. Some embodiments areparticularly directed to techniques to promoted filtered messages basedon historical reply rate for the management of unprompted messagingcontacts from strangers. In one embodiment, for example, an apparatusmay comprise a messaging interface component operative to receive anincoming message addressed to a recipient account from a sender accountat a messaging system; and transmit the incoming message to a configureddelivery mailbox on a client device associated with the recipientaccount; and a destination mailbox configuration component operative todetermine one or more connection categories between the sender accountand the recipient account; determine a predicted reply rate for theincoming message based on the one or more connection categories, arecipient reply history for the recipient account, and a sender replyhistory for the sender account; configure the delivery mailbox for theincoming message based on the predicted reply rate; identify amost-prominent connection category of the one or more connectioncategories; and configure the incoming message with a banner messageindicating the most-prominent connection category. Other embodiments aredescribed and claimed.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certainillustrative aspects are described herein in connection with thefollowing description and the annexed drawings. These aspects areindicative of the various ways in which the principles disclosed hereincan be practiced and all aspects and equivalents thereof are intended tobe within the scope of the claimed subject matter. Other advantages andnovel features will become apparent from the following detaileddescription when considered in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a delivery mailbox configurationsystem.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a user interface displaying amessage composition interface.

FIG. 3A illustrates an embodiment of a user interface displaying amessaging mailbox interface.

FIG. 3B illustrates an embodiment of a user interface displaying arequest-to-chat mailbox interface.

FIG. 3C illustrates an embodiment of a user interface displaying arequest-to-chat message interface.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a delivery mailbox configurationsystem processing an unknown contact message.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a logic flow for the system of FIG.1.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a centralized system for the systemof FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a distributed system for the systemof FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of a computing architecture.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a communications architecture.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a radio device architecture.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A messaging system may support a large number of and a large variety ofusers. These users may be empowered with various techniques fordiscovering each other. This techniques may be particularly varied wherethe messaging system operates as part of a more expansive system, suchas a social networking system, that may provide many features andorganizational tools through which users can discover each other. Usersof a messaging system may therefore receive messages from users withwhich they have an existing relationship—having previously exchangedmessages with a messaging user, having the messaging user on a contactlist, having a registered friend relationship with the messaging user ina social network, etc. —and from users with which they don't have anexisting relationship.

Where a user has an existing relationship with a messaging user, theuser may be happy to have messages from the messaging user delivered tothe primary mailbox. Further, some messages from people with which theydon't have an existing relationship may be acceptable to receive in theprimary mailbox if these messages are of sufficient interest to thereceiving user. However, a user may become frustrated if unwantedmessages are routed to their primary mailbox, particularly if thesemessages are from strangers or others with which they don't have anexisting relationship.

As such, users may benefit from having an additional, separate mailboxinto which at least some portion of messages from unknown users arefiltered. The messaging system may therefore attempt to estimate theinterest the receiving user has in a message received from a messaginguser. As messaging interactions are frequentlyconversations—bidirectional or multidirectional rather than one-wayinteractions—a prediction as to whether a user will respond to a messagefrom an unknown contact may serve as a useful proxy for whether a userhas an interest in the message from the unknown contact. Becausereplying is an external, objective act—rather than an internal,subjective experience—it may be more practical to estimate thepossibility of a user replying to a message than it is estimate thepossibility of a user having an interest in the message; replying mayserve as an external measure of the user's interest.

Messages that the messaged user is predicted to be likely to respond tomay therefore be sorted to the primary mailbox, while messages that theuser is not predicted to be likely to respond to are filtered to theseparate mailbox. This separate mailbox may be less prominent in theuser interface for the messaging system presented to the messaged userand may be associated with lower-priority notification of new messagesto the messaged user. For example, when using a mobile device (e.g.,smartphone), the messaged user may receive a push notification formessages assigned to the primary mailbox, while the messaging system mayrefrain from sending a push notification for messages assigned to theseparate, lower-priority mailbox so as to avoid interrupting a user witha message that they are predicted to not be interested in.

A user's probability of replying to a message may be inferred from theirprevious behavior with regards to similar previous messages. Forinstance, a broad estimation of a user's reply probability may be madeas being equal to the user's historic reply rate for messages fromunknown contacts. However, a better prediction may be made by narrowingthe portion of the messages from unknown contacts that are included inthe historic reply rate to estimate the reply probability for anincoming message. For a messaging system that empower users with avariety of techniques to discover each other, one useful technique fornarrowing user's history is to use the one or more channels with whichthe messaging user may have discovered the messaged user. For example,if the users are members of the same group, are registered as havingattended or going to attend a particular event, or have a friend incommon, then that may be how the messaging user discovered the messageduser. The user's reply probability may therefore be estimated based onthe user's historic reply rate for messages from that channel—sharedevents, shared groups, shared friends, etc. This estimate may be ahigher-quality estimate than if a channel were not incorporated into theanalysis.

The messaging user's history may also be relevant to the estimation.Just as a messaged user may have a reply history for replying tomessages from unknown contacts, a messaging user may have a replyhistory for receiving replies to messages sent to unknown contacts.Where a messaged user's history may reflect the messaged user's interestin receiving messages from unknown contacts discovering them via variouschannels, a messaging user's history may reflect the messaging user'ssuccess in starting conversations with users with which they don't havean existing messaging relationship. A user that discriminates inselecting appropriate users for messaging and/or directs the contents oftheir message to the likely interests of the messaged user may deserveto be assigned to a primary mailbox. For example, a user that messagesanother user from a shared group with a message that is on-topic for thegroup—an offer to trade board games in a board game swapping group, forexample—may have a high reply rate and therefore earn assignment oftheir messages to users in a shared group to the primary mailboxes ofthe messaged users.

The messaged user's evaluation of a received request-to-chat message maybe aided by being informed of their connection to the messaging user.The messaging system's evaluation of the messaged user's connection tothe messaging user may be leveraged to determine what connection betweenthe messaging user and the messaged user to display to the messaged userin association with a received request-to-chat message. In particular,the connection between the messaged user and the messaging user that ispredicted to most likely generate a reply from the messaged user may beused to characterize the messaged user. This connection may be displayedin a banner message displayed with the request-to-chat message inassociation with other information relating to the messaging user so asto inform the messaged user of who is attempting to message them.

As such, a messaging system may analyze the context of a message betweenusers without a previous messaging history or other previousrelationship. The messaging system may incorporate the messaginghistory, particularly the reply rates for each user, and generate apredicted probability of reply to such a message. The messaging systemmay then assign the message to a primary mailbox or a lower-prioritymailbox based on this predicted probability. The messaging system mayaccompany the message with an information display communicating amost-prominent connection between the users. As a result, theseembodiments can improve the utility of a messaging system for its users,empowering users to reach out to users with which they don't yet have arelationship while limiting the inconvenience of receiving messages inwhich a user is not interested.

Reference is now made to the drawings, wherein like reference numeralsare used to refer to like elements throughout. In the followingdescription, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details areset forth in order to provide a thorough understanding thereof. It maybe evident, however, that the novel embodiments can be practiced withoutthese specific details. In other instances, well known structures anddevices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate adescription thereof. The intention is to cover all modifications,equivalents, and alternatives consistent with the claimed subjectmatter.

It is worthy to note that “a” and “b” and “c” and similar designators asused herein are intended to be variables representing any positiveinteger. Thus, for example, if an implementation sets a value for a=5,then a complete set of components 122 illustrated as components 122-1through 122-a may include components 122-1, 122-2, 122-3, 122-4 and122-5. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram for a delivery mailbox configurationsystem 100. In one embodiment, the delivery mailbox configuration system100 may comprise a computer-implemented system having softwareapplications comprising one or more components. Although the deliverymailbox configuration system 100 shown in FIG. 1 has a limited number ofelements in a certain topology, it may be appreciated that the deliverymailbox configuration system 100 may include more or less elements inalternate topologies as desired for a given implementation.

A messaging system 150 may be generally arranged to receive, store, anddeliver messages. The messaging system 150 may store messages whilemessaging clients, such as may execute on recipient client device 120,known contact client device 160, predicted interest client device 170,and predicted non-interest client device 180, are offline and deliverthe messages once the messaging clients are available.

Client devices 120, 160, 170, and 180 may execute messaging clients forthe messaging system 150, wherein each of the client devices 120, 160,170, and 180 and their respective messaging clients are associated witha particular user of the messaging system 150. In some embodiments, theclient devices 120, 160, 170, and 180 may be cellular devices such assmartphones and may be identified to the messaging system 150 based on aphone number associated with each of the client devices 120, 160, 170,and 180. In some embodiments, the client devices 120, 160, 170, and 180may be identified to the messaging system 150 based on a user accountregistered with the messaging system 150—and potentially a socialnetworking system 140 that comprises or is associated with the messagingsystem 150—and logged into from the messaging client executing on theclient devices 120, 160, 170, and 180. In general, each messaging clientmay be addressed through various techniques for the reception ofmessages. While in some embodiments the client devices 120, 160, 170,and 180 may comprise cellular devices, in other embodiments one or moreof the client devices 120, 160, 170, and 180 may include personalcomputers, tablet devices, any other form of computing device withoutlimitation. Personal computers and other devices may access a messagingsystem 150 using web browser accessing a web server, for instance.

A known contact client device 160 may correspond to a client deviceassociated with a sender account with a preexisting relationship withthe recipient account to which a known contact message 165 is directed.The preexisting relationship may comprise the recipient account andsender account having previously interacted with each other, and mayspecifically comprise the recipient account having messaged the senderaccount and thereby indicated an interest in communicating with thesender account. The preexisting relationship may comprise the recipientaccount and sender account being registered as friends or another socialrelationship with a social networking system 140 associated with themessaging system 150. The preexisting relationship may comprise therecipient account having the sender account on a contact list registeredwith the messaging system 150. In general, a preexisting relationshipmay correspond to any action performed via the recipient account thatengages with the sender account, including messaging, registering asocial relationship, or adding as a contact.

The known contact client device 160 may transmit a message to therecipient client device 120 as a sender account messaging a recipientaccount, with the messaging comprising a known contact message 165 dueto the preexisting relationship with the sender account for the knowncontact client 160 and the recipient account for the recipient clientdevice 120. The messaging system 150 may transmit the known contactmessage 165 to the recipient client device 120 for viewing by the userassociated with the recipient account. The known contact message 165 maybe configured for delivery to a primary mailbox for the recipientaccount—and thereby a primary mailbox on the recipient client device120—due to the preexisting relationship between the sender account forthe known contact client device 160 and the recipient account for therecipient device 120. In some embodiments, a message notification may betransmitted to the recipient client device 120 to alert the user of therecipient client device 120 that they have a message available due tothe assignment of the known contact message 165 to the primary mailboxfor the recipient account.

A predicted interest client device 170 may correspond to a client deviceassociated with a sender account without a preexisting relationship withthe recipient account, but where a message sent to the recipient accountfor the recipient client device 120 is predicted to be of interest tothe user of the recipient client device 120 and is therefore a predictedinterest message 175. This predicted interest may be based on ananalysis of the reply history for the recipient account for messagesdirected to the recipient account and/or based on an analysis of thereply history for the sender account for the predicted interest message175. The predicted interest may be specifically associated with aninferred association between the sender account for the predictedinterest client device 170 and the recipient account for the recipientclient device 120.

The messaging system 150 may transmit the predicted interest message 175to the recipient client device 120 for viewing by the user associatedwith the recipient account. The predicted interest message 175 may beconfigured for delivery to a primary mailbox for the recipientaccount—and thereby a primary mailbox on the recipient client device120—due to the prediction of the recipient user's interest in thepredicted interest message 175. In some embodiments, a messagenotification may be transmitted to the recipient client device 120 toalert the user of the recipient client device 120 that they have amessage available due to the assignment of the predicted interestmessage 175 to the primary mailbox for the recipient account.

A predicted non-interest client device 180 may correspond to a clientdevice associated with a sender account without a preexistingrelationship with the recipient account and where a message sent to therecipient account for the recipient client device 120 is predicted tonot be of interest to the user of the recipient client device 120 and istherefore a predicted non-interest message 185. This predicted lack ofinterest may correspond to a lack of a predicted interest and may bebased on an analysis of the reply history for the recipient account formessages directed to the recipient account and/or based on an analysisof the reply history for the sender account for the predictednon-interest message 185. The lack of predicted interest may bespecifically associated with an inferred association between the senderaccount for the predicted non-interest client device 180 and therecipient account for the recipient client device 120.

The messaging system 150 may transmit the predicted non-interest message185 to the recipient client device 120 for viewing by the userassociated with the recipient account. The predicted non-interestmessage 185 may be configured for delivery to a request-to-chat mailboxfor the recipient account—and thereby a request-to-chat mailbox on therecipient client device 120—due to the prediction of the recipientuser's non-interest in the predicted non-interest message 185. In someembodiments, the messaging system 150 may refrain from transmitting amessage notification to the recipient client device 120 due to theassignment of the predicted non-interest message 185 to therequest-to-chat mailbox for the recipient account, in contrast withsending a notification where a pre-existing relationship exists or a therecipient user's interest is predicted.

A notification may comprise a push notification transmitted to therecipient client device 120 in excess of any requests by the recipientclient device 120 to retrieve information, without waiting for therecipient client device 120 request the delivery of any available andqueued messages. In contrast, the actual delivery of messages—such asthe known contact message 165, predicted interest message 175, andpredicted non-interest message 185—may be queued by the messaging system150 until the recipient client device 120 communicates a request to themessaging system 150 for any undelivered messages addressed to therecipient account associated with the recipient client device 120. Anotification may prompt a display on a user interface for the recipientclient device 120, such as on the lock screen of the recipient clientdevice 120 and/or in association with an icon for a messaging clientapplication associated with the messaging system 150.

In general, the use of a notification may correspond to ahigher-prominence and more-interruptive technique for informing a userof the recipient client device 120 that a message is available, ascontrasted with waiting until the user actives a messaging clientapplication and sees within the messaging client application that arequest-to-chat message is available. Where a user receives a message inwhich they are interested, such as known contact message 165 orpredicted interest message 175, they may welcome an immediatenotification and interruption as it indicates that they may engage in amessaging interaction in which they are interested. However, where amessage is likely not of interest to the user, they may prefer not to beinterrupted or immediately notified and instead to wait see that arequest-to-chat message is available until they choose to operate amessaging client application. As such, the selective sending ofnotifications based on whether a message is predicted to be of interestor not predicted to be of interest may serve to reserve notificationsfor those cases in which a user welcomes an interruption and benefitsform immediate notification that a message is available.

Delivery mailbox configuration system 100 may include an authorizationserver (or other suitable component(s)) that allows users to opt in toor opt out of having their actions logged by delivery mailboxconfiguration system 100 or shared with other systems (e.g., third-partysystems), for example, by setting appropriate privacy settings. Aprivacy setting of a user may determine what information associated withthe user may be logged, how information associated with the user may belogged, when information associated with the user may be logged, who maylog information associated with the user, whom information associatedwith the user may be shared with, and for what purposes informationassociated with the user may be logged or shared. Authorization serversor other authorization components may be used to enforce one or moreprivacy settings of the users of delivery mailbox configuration system100 and other elements of a messaging system through blocking, datahashing, anonymization, or other suitable techniques as appropriate. Insome embodiments, a user may be presented with information regarding maybe collected and how that information may be used, such as informing theuser that collected information may be anonymized prior to analysis.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a user interface 200 displaying amessage composition interface on a sender client device 220.

The sender client device 220 may correspond to any client device of themessaging system 150 being used to compose a message, such as knowncontact client device 160, predicted interest client device 170, andpredicted non-interest client device 180. A messaging compositioninterface may comprise a feature of a messaging client empowering a userof the messaging client to compose and submit messages for delivery bythe messaging system 150.

Composing a message may include specifying one or more user accounts towhom to address a messages, such as by entering the names associatedwith the user accounts (i.e., the names of the messaged users) in anaddress field 205. The messaging client may be operative to performauto-complete on names entered in an address field 205, such as byretrieving matching names from a messaging user's contact list, friendslist, or other repository contact information associated with a user. Insome cases, an addressed user account may be added to the address field205 in response to a user being selected elsewhere in a user interfacefor a messaging system 150, social networking system 140, and/or othernetwork system or service. For instance, one user may select anotheruser during their use of a social networking system 140: the user mayselect the other user from a group member list in a group userinterface; the user may select the user from an invited, attending, orattended member list in an event user interface; or the user may, ingeneral, select the user from a user list or user display in a userinterface for a social networking system 140 or other network system orservice. Selecting the user may empower the messaging user to add theselected user to the address field 205.

Composing a message may include specifying content for the message.Content may include a user-generated text segment, such as may beentered using text controls 215. It will be appreciated that while theillustrated text controls 215 of FIG. 2 comprise touchscreen softwaretext controls, that in other embodiments other input techniques may beused for user-generated text, such as hardware text controls,handwriting recognition, voice input, or any other technique for textinput. The user of the sender client device 220 may enter a message 210,with the illustrated message comprising an invitation to enter into aconversation. In some cases, a message 210 may additionally oralternatively comprise non-text elements, such as media items. Mediaitems may include, without limitation, images, animated images, videos,audio items, or any other type of media.

The user interface 200 may correspond to an embodiment in which message210 has just been sent. In this case, the address field 205 maycommunicate the other user in which the user of the sender client device220 is engaging in conversation after the selection of that other userduring the composition of the message 210. The message 210 may bedisplayed as a display of the messaging history between the two users—inthis case, that messaging history between the two users being comprisedsolely of the message 210. During the composition of message 210additional controls may be displayed, such as for the sending of themessage 210, the inclusion of media, and other messaging compositioncontrols.

The message 210 may comprise an initial message sent between the twousers. The messaged user may correspond to the user of the recipientclient device 120 as described with reference to FIG. 1. The two usersmay not have previously messaged before and may not have an establishedrelationship within the messaging system 150 and/or within the socialnetworking system 140. An established relationship may correspond to adirect relationship between the users as registered in their useraccount, and may therefore include friendship or a direct messaginghistory, but not include attendance or invitation to the same event,membership in the same group, or other group connection without acorresponding direct connection. The message 210 may correspond to oneof the predict interest message 175 or predicted non-interest message185 depending on the analysis of the messaging system 150. It will beappreciated that a user interface such as the messaging compositioninterface of FIG. 2 may also be used in the composition of messages suchas known contact message 165 that are between users with an establishedrelationship.

FIG. 3A illustrates an embodiment of a user interface 300 displaying amessaging mailbox interface on the recipient client device 120.

In one embodiment, this messaging mailbox interface may correspond to aview of and controls for the primary mailbox for the user of therecipient client device 120. This primary mailbox may be assignedmessages that are exchanged with (received from and/or sent to) userswith which the user of the recipient client device 120 has an existingrelationship, such as known contact message 165, and those that werepredicted to be of interest to the user of the recipient client device120, such as predicted interest message 175. The primarily mailbox mayalso organize messages reassigned to it, such as if a message that wasnot predicted to be of interest were viewed by the user of the recipientclient device 120 and replied to or otherwise responded to in a mannerindicating interest and therefore moved to the primary mailbox. Theseembodiments may divide messages into at least two mailboxes: ahigh-priority mailbox (assigned known contact messages andunknown-contact predicted-interest messages) and a low-priority mailbox(assigned unknown-contact predicted-disinterest messages).

In another embodiment, this messaging mailbox may correspond to a viewof and controls for a highly-rated request-to-chat mailbox. A different,primary mailbox may be assigned messages exchanged with users with whichthe user of the recipient client device 120 has an existingrelationship. The highly-rated request-to-chat mailbox may be assignedmessages exchanged with users with which the user of the recipientclient device 120 does not have an existing relationship, but that werepredicted to be of interest to the user of the recipient client device120. A different, low-rated request-to-chat mailbox may be assignedmessages exchanged with users with which the user of the recipientclient device 120 does not have an existing relationship and that werepredicted to not be of interest to the user of the recipient clientdevice 120. The primary mailbox may still be reassigned messages thatwere from users with which the user of the recipient client device 120does not have an existing relationship but that were viewed by the userof the recipient client device 120 and replied to or otherwise respondedto in a manner indicating interest. These embodiments may dividemessages into at least three mailboxes: a high-priority mailbox(assigned known contact messages), a medium-priority mailbox (assignedunknown-contact predicted-interest messages), and a low-priority mailbox(assigned unknown-contact predicted-disinterest messages).

Some portion of displayed messages may comprise unread messages 305,which have not yet been read by the user of the recipient client device120. Some portion of the messages may comprise previously read messages310, which have previously been read by the user of the recipient clientdevice 120. A record of whether a message has been read or has not beenread may be maintained consistently for a user across different clientdevices by the messaging system 150, such that reading a message on anydevice marks the message as read on every device.

The messaging mailbox interface may empower the selection of a filteredmessage view control 315. The filtered message view control 315 may beassociated with a display of a number of messages that have beenfiltered out of the mailbox and have not yet been read. The selection ofthe filtered message view control 315 may instantiate a request-to-chatmailbox interface displaying messages that have been filtered out of themailbox into the request-to-chat mailbox. The filtered message viewcontrol 315 may generally empower the viewing of lower-priority messagesthan those displayed in a presently-displayed mailbox. Where thedisplayed mailbox is a high-priority mailbox displaying only assignedknown contact messages, the filtered message view control 315 mayinstantiate a medium-priority mailbox assigned unknown-contactpredicted-interest messages. Where the displayed mailbox is amedium-priority mailbox displaying unknown-contact predicted-interestmessages, the filtered message view control 315 may instantiate alow-priority mailbox assigned unknown-contact predicted-disinterestmessages. Where the displayed mailbox is a high-priority mailboxassigned both known contact messages and unknown-contactpredicted-interest messages, the filtered message view control 315 mayinstantiate a low-priority mailbox assigned unknown-contactpredicted-disinterest messages.

FIG. 3B illustrates an embodiment of a user interface 325 displaying arequest-to-chat mailbox interface. The request-to-chat mailbox interfacemay be reached in the user interface for a messaging client by, forinstance, selecting the filtered message view control 315 as describedwith reference to FIG. 3A.

The request-to-chat mailbox interface may display request-to-chatmessages 335, the messages that have been filtered from display in theprimary mailbox based on their being from a user without an existingrelationship with the messaged user and the predicted probability ofreply for the messaged user falling below a defined threshold. Therequest-to-chat messages 335 may be displayed in reverse chronologicalorder, with the most recent messages of the request-to-chat messages 335displayed first, as illustrated. In an alternative embodiment, therequest-to-chat messages 335 may be displayed according to theirpredicted probability of reply by the messaged user, with messagepredicted to be more likely to be replied to being displayed first. Insome embodiments, unread request-to-chat messages may be displayed as agroup prior to any already-read request-to-chat messages. Thesetechniques may be combined in various embodiments, such as by orderingunread request-to-chat messages according to predicted interest, butordering already-read request-to-chat messages reverse-chronologically.

Where request-to-chat messages are divided into two request-to-chatmailboxes—a medium-priority mailbox assigned unknown-contactpredicted-interest messages and a low-priority mailbox assignedunknown-contact predicted-disinterest messages—different sortingtechniques may be used for the two request-to-chat mailboxes. Themedium-priority request-to-chat mailbox may be sorted according to theuser's predicted interest in the messages, such that messages with thehighest predicted interest are placed at the top of the mailbox display,with the messages sorted in order of decreasing predicted interest. Incontrast, the low-priority request-to-chat mailbox may be sorted inreverse chronological order, with the most recent messages displayedfirst. This may serve to present the highest-priority unknown-contactmessages most prominently, both by placing them in a distinct mailboxfrom unknown-contact messages that fall below the predicted-interestthreshold and by sorting them according to their predicted interest,while lower-priority unknown-contact messages are displayed inchronological order so that the messaged user may easily view the mostrecent lower-priority unknown-contact messages.

In some embodiments, the medium-priority mailbox assignedunknown-contact predicted-interest messages and the low-priority mailboxassigned unknown-contact predicted-disinterest messages may be combinedin a user interface. The unknown-contact predicted-interest messages maybe automatically displayed when the user interface is instantiated as“above the fold” messages that meet the predicted-interest threshold.The unknown-contact predicted-disinterest messages may be initiallyhidden from view within the user interface—hidden “below the fold”—andonly displayed when a low-priority message control is selected by theuser so as to not initially bother the user with messages that they arepredicted to not have an interest in. In some of these embodiments, theunknown-contact predicted-interest messages may be sorted according tothe user's predicted interest in the messages and the unknown-contactpredicted-disinterest messages may be sorted in reverse chronologicalorder.

The request-to-chat mailbox interface may include explanatory text 330.Explanatory text 330 may be composed in a display informing the user ofthe recipient client device 120 of the nature of the request-to-chatmailbox and the rules that control it. For instance, explanatory text330 may communicate that while the messaging system 150 may generallycommunicate to a sending user when a recipient user has viewed amessage, the messaging system 150 may refrain from communicating to thesending user when a recipient user has viewed a request-to-chat messageuntil and only if the recipient user responds to the request-to-chatmessage.

The request-to-chat mailbox interface may empower the selection of aparticular request-to-chat message out of the plurality ofrequest-to-chat messages 335. The selection of a particularrequest-to-chat message out of the plurality of request-to-chat messages335 may instantiate a request-to-chat message interface displaying themessage and providing user controls for user interaction with theparticular request-to-chat message.

FIG. 3C illustrates an embodiment of a user interface 350 displaying arequest-to-chat message interface. The request-to-chat message interfacemay be reached in the user interface for a messaging client by, forinstance, selecting a particular request-to-chat message from aplurality of request-to-chat messages 335 in a request-to-chat mailboxinterface as described with reference to FIG. 3B.

The request-to-chat message interface may correspond to the display of aparticular request-to-chat message sent to the user of the recipientclient device 120. In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 3C, message 210composed on the sender client device 220 may have been filtered to therequest-to-chat message mailbox by the messaging system 150. Themessaging system 150 may have configured message 210 for delivery to therequest-to-chat message mailbox based on its analysis of any existingrelationship between the sender account and recipient account and itsprediction as to the probability of the recipient of the message 210replying to the message 210.

The request-to-chat message interface may display the message 210. Therequest-to-chat message interface may display the message 210 inassociation with a contact reply control 365. The contract reply control365 may empower the user of the recipient client device 120 to reply tothe message 210 using the messaging client and messaging system 150. Thecontract reply control 365 may instantiate a message compositioninterface, such as described with reference to FIG. 2. The user of therecipient client device 120 sending a reply to the message 210 mayindicate an acceptance by the recipient user of the message 210 whichmay initiate one or more acceptance actions. A message 210 beingaccepted may result in the message 210 being moved from therequest-to-chat mailbox to the primary mailbox. A message 210 beingaccepted may result in the messaging system 150 communicating to thesending user that the message 210 was viewed by the recipient user. Amessage 210 being accepted may establish a messaging relationshipbetween the sender user account and recipient user account such thatfuture messages from sender user account are filtered to the primarymailbox for the recipient user account by the messaging system 150. Areply message sent by the recipient user may be filtered by themessaging system 150 to the primary mailbox for the sender user accountbased on the sender user account having messaged the recipient useraccount.

The request-to-chat message interface may display the message 210 inassociation with a contract decline control 360. The contact declinecontrol 360 may empower a user to explicitly decline to message with themessaging user. In some embodiments, a user explicitly declining amessage 210 may remove the declined message 210 from the recipient'srequest-to-chat mailbox. In contrast, a messaged user may delay thedecision to decline or reply by backing out of the request-to-chatmessage interface, such as may return the user to the request-to-chatmailbox interface. The messaging system 150 may refrain from informingthe messaging user as to the messaged user declining the message 210,such as by continuing to refrain from indicating whether the messageduser has viewed the message 210.

The request-to-chat message interface may include a banner message 355.A banner message 355 may comprise various information regarding thesending user, the information selected to inform the recipient user ofinformation relevant to their decision of whether to message with thesending user by responding to the message 210. The banner message 355may include the name of the sending user. The banner message 355 mayinclude a profile image, avatar image, or other image associated withthe sending user with the messaging system 150. The banner message 355may include a summary of information about the sending user, such as atheir occupation or job title, their employer, and a location associatedwith the user, such as the city in which they live and/or work. Thesummary of information may be derived from information about the userregistered with a social networking system 140 with which the messagingsystem 150 is associated.

The banner message 355 may include a most-prominent connection category.The most-prominent connection category may communicate the type ofconnection determined as being most prominent between the sender useraccount and the recipient user account. In the illustrated embodiment ofFIG. 3C, the most-prominent connection category is an event category,represented in this case by both the sender user account and therecipient user account being registered as attending a particularbirthday party. As shown in the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 3C, theparticular event is listed so as to communicate both that themost-prominent connection category is the event category and theparticular event that is responsible for the sender user account andrecipient user account sharing that connection category.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a delivery mailbox configurationsystem 100 processing an unknown contact message 425.

A sending user with an associated sender user account for a messagingsystem 150 may operate an instance of a messaging client 420 executingon a sender client device 220. A recipient user with an associatedrecipient user account for a messaging system 150 may operate aninstance of the messaging client 420 executing on a recipient clientdevice 120. In some cases, the recipient user and the sending user maynot have a preexisting relationship so far as registered with themessaging system 150 and/or an associated social-networking system 140,thereby making a message 210 sent by the sending user an unknown contactmessage 425, the unknown contact message 425 comprising an attempt bythe sending user to establish a messaging relationship between thesender user account and the recipient user account with the messagingsystem 150.

The messaging system 150 may comprise one or more component as may beimplemented by one or more server devices. The messaging system 150 maycomprise a messaging interface component 440 and a destination mailboxconfiguration component 450. It will be appreciated that additional oralternative components may be used in different embodiments.

The messaging interface component 440 may be generally arranged toreceive messages from messaging clients and to transmit messages tomessaging clients. The messaging interface component 440 may beoperative to queue incoming and outgoing messages and to cache outgoingmessages until a messaging client or messaging clients associated with arecipient user account are available to receive messages. The messaginginterface component 440 may be operative to receive an incoming unknowncontact message 425 addressed to a recipient account from a senderaccount at a messaging system 150. The messaging interface component 440may transmit the incoming unknown contact message 425 to a configureddelivery mailbox on a recipient client device 120 associated with therecipient account. The configured delivery mailbox may be determinedbased on whether a preexisting messaging relationship is registered withthe messaging system 150 and/or whether a predicted reply rate for theincoming unknown contact message 425 meets a particular threshold. Theincoming unknown contact message 425 may be configured with—have a fieldspecified or added—a message sorting indicator 445, the message sortingindicator 445 identifying the delivery mailbox.

The destination mailbox configuration component 450 may be generallyarranged to determine which mailbox for a recipient user account toassign messages to. The destination mailbox configuration component 450may be generally arranged to configure messages for delivery to thedetermined mailbox, to remotely configure the receiving messagingclient(s) in the storage and display of messages, and to configure thenetwork transmission of messages, in particular whether or not networknotifications are transmitted for messages.

The destination mailbox configuration component 450 may be operative todetermine one or more connection categories between the sender accountand the recipient account. A connection category may correspond to atype of connection that may be shared between two users of a messagingsystem 150 and/or a social-networking system 140. In some embodimentsand cases, a particular connection category may cover multipleconnections, such as two user accounts both being registered asattending a plurality of events and thereby sharing the calendar eventcategory based on all of the plurality of events. A shared connectioncategory may be used to categorize the frequency with which therecipient user replies to messages from users with which they have aconnection in that category and to categorize the frequency with whichthe sending user is successful in prompting replies from users withwhich they have a connection in that category. The one or moreconnection categories may comprise one or more of a shared socialnetworking group category, a shared calendar event category, aphysical-proximity category, a friend-of-a-friend category, and anunconnected category.

A social-networking system 140 and/or a messaging system 150 maymaintain groups, such as may be used to organize discussions, news,posts, or other social-networking or messaging information and actions.A particular connection category may be a shared group category, such asa shared social-networking group category. A shared group category maybe used to categorize the frequency with which the recipient userreplies to messages from users with which they share a group and tocategorize the frequency with which the sending user is successful inprompting replies from users with which they share a group. For example,two users may both belong to a social-networking group dedicated tohobbyist stained glass creation, the social-networking group includinggroup conversation, group posts, group sharing, and generally socialinteraction between members of the group.

A social-networking group being shared may increase the probability thata recipient user would be interested in a message from the sending user.A social-networking group being shared may indicate a possibility that amessage sent between members of the group relates to that group and istherefore of interest to the recipient user. In some embodiments, theshared social-networking group connection category may be usedindependent of any indication of whether the shared social-networkinggroup is responsible for the message being sent. In other embodiments,the shared social-networking group category may be particularly used ormay be increased in prominence based on one or more indications that theshared social-networking group is responsible for the message beingsent: the message composition interface being instantiated from a viewof the shared social-networking group, the recipient user account beingdiscovered in relation to it being listed as a member of the sharedsocial-networking group, or any other indication that the sharedsocial-networking group is responsible for the message being sent or therecipient user being discovered by the sending user.

A message sent between members of the group may increase the predictedinterest of the recipient user due to the shared social-networking grouprepresenting a commonality of interest between the sending user and therecipient user. For example, a sending user belonging to asocial-networking group dedicated to hobbyist stained glass creation maynotice that the recipient user has joined the hobbyist stained glasscreation group and has been asking questions about good startingequipment for hobbyist stained glass creation. The sending user maymessage the recipient user, for example, an offer to sell their ownstarting equipment, having recently purchased new equipment. The sendinguser and recipient user belonging to the same group may thereforecorrespond to the two users being more likely to have a relevant topicof conversation about which to message.

Joining a group may comprise an explicit action on the part of a userwith a social-networking system 140, in which the user selects the groupwith the social-networking system 140 and requests to join the group. Insome cases, a user joining a group may be withheld until a groupadministrator for the group approves the user joining the group. Asocial-networking group may, in some embodiments, be distinguished froma messaging group, where a social-networking group comprises acollection of related social-networking activities while a messaginggroup directly corresponds to the broadcast of messages between a groupof users.

In some embodiments, groups may be divided into various types, with aconnection category of the one or more connection categories comprisinga shared type-specific-group category, used where the sending useraccount and recipient user account are both members of a group withinthat particular type of group. Groups may be assigned to types accordingto various criteria, such as subject matter, dominant use (commerce orsocial, etc.), or any other criteria.

A social-networking system 140 and/or a messaging system 150 maymaintain calendars, such as may be used to organize events and otherscheduling information for its users. A particular connection categorymay be a shared calendar event category, such as a sharedsocial-networking calendar event category. Two users may both beregistered as having an association with a particular calendar event,such as a social event registered with the social-networking system 140.An association with a particular calendar event may correspond to aparticular one or any of being invited to the event, having registeredoneself as going to attend the event, and/or being registered as havingattended the event.

A social-networking system 140 and/or a messaging system 150 mayregister the locations of user, such as by registering the location ofassociated client devices. A particular connection category may be aphysical-proximity category. In some embodiments, a physical-proximitycategory may be a shared current physical-proximity category indicatingthat at the time of message composition, transmission, and/or receiptthat the users are in a proximate physical area of each other, such asby being within a predefined distance of each other. In someembodiments, a physical-proximity category may be a shared recentphysical-proximity category indicating that within a predefined recency(i.e., quantity of time) of the time of message composition,transmission, and/or receipt that the users were in a proximate physicalarea of each other. In some embodiments, both a shared currentphysical-proximity category and a shared recent physical-proximitycategory may be used.

A friend-of-a-friend category may correspond to two users having one ormore shared friends in a social-networking system 140. Afriend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend category may correspond to users thateach have a friend who are friends with each other in thesocial-networking system 140. In general, any social-networkingrelationship known to a social-networking system 140 may be used todefined a connection category.

A reply probability prediction may also include the possibility that theuser account or that the message may be unprompted by any connectionother than shared use of the messaging system 150 and/or thesocial-networking system 140. An unconnected category may be used as adefault category to represent such cases and to provide for at least oneconnection category in all cases between all pairs of users of themessaging system 150. An unconnected category may be used to categorizethe overall frequency with which the recipient user replies to otherusers of the messaging system 150 and to categorize the overallfrequency with which the sending user is successful in prompting repliesfrom other users of the messaging system 150.

Determining the one or more connection categories between the senderaccount and the recipient account may comprise accessing an accountinformation repository for the social-networking system 150. An accountinformation repository may store records reflecting information aboutthe sender account and the recipient account with the social-networkingsystem 150. The destination mailbox configuration component 450 mayperform one or more information retrievals with the account informationrepository to determine the one or more connection categories.

In one embodiment, the destination mailbox configuration component 450may perform an information retrieval for each of the connectioncategories with which it is configured to consider to determine whethera connection belonging to each connection category is present, with thepresent connection categories comprising the determined one or moreconnection categories. In another embodiment, the destination mailboxconfiguration component 450 may perform an account information retrievalfor each of the sender user account and recipient user account toretrieve account information for each. The account information mayinclude a listing of various memberships, registrations, and otherassociations that indicate, without limitation, the groups, events,locations, and other information associated with the accounts.Determining the one or more connection categories between the senderaccount and the recipient account may comprise performing a comparisonof the sender account information and the recipient account informationto determine associations between the accounts. In some embodiments,some connections may be determined using specific correspondencetechniques, such as submitting the user accounts to a proximate-locationdetection system for the social-networking system 150 to determinewhether the location histories for the user accounts indicates a sharedproximate location for the users.

The destination mailbox configuration component 450 may be operative todetermine a predicted reply rate for the incoming unknown contactmessage 425 based on the one or more connection categories, a recipientreply history for the recipient account, and a sender reply history forthe sender account. The recipient reply history may be used to evaluatethe tendency of the recipient user to respond to messages from userswith which they do not have an established messaging relationship,particularly that tendency in relation to the one or more connectioncategories. The sender reply history may be used to evaluate thetendency of the sending user to prompt a reply to messages from userswith which they do not have an established messaging relationship,particularly that tendency in relation to the one or more connectioncategories.

The destination mailbox configuration component 450 may determine one ormore category-specific predicted reply rates, wherein each of the one ormore category-specific predicated reply rates is associated with one ofthe one or more connection categories. Each of the one or morecategory-specific predicted reply rates may be a combination of arecipient historic reply rate for a connection category and a senderhistoric reply rate for the connection category. The destination mailboxconfiguration component 450 may determine the predicted reply rate basedon the one or more category-specific predicted reply rates.

In some embodiments, the recipient history reply rate for a connectioncategory may be the fraction of messages received from another user withwhich the recipient user does not have a preexisting messagingrelationship to which the recipient user replies. In some embodiments,the sender history reply rate for a connection category may be thefraction of messages sent to another user with which the sending userdoes not have a preexisting messaging relationship from which thesending user receives a reply. Alternatively, the history reply rate maybe adjusted to preference (e.g., weight higher) recent messaginginteractions as compared to less-recent messaging interactions.

Determining a history reply rate may comprise analyzing a reply historyto determine, for each unknown contact message in the reply history,whether a reply was generated: whether each unknown contact message sentby the sender was replied to and whether each unknown contact messagereceived by the recipient was replied to. A running reply rate may bekept, and may be kept for each connection category, which is updatedaccording to each unknown contact message. Upon reception of an unknowncontact message, an unknown contact message counter for each of thesender user account and recipient user account may be incremented foreach connection category. Upon a reply being sent for an unknown contactmessage, an unknown contact message reply counter for each of the senderuser account and recipient user account may be incremented for eachconnection category. The historic reply rate for a connection categorymay thereafter be calculated by dividing the unknown contact messagereply counter by the unknown contact message counter for that connectioncategory, wherein distinct counters are kept for sent messages andreceived messages in order to distinguish between a user's predilectionto reply and success in garnering replies, such that each connectioncategory for each user account is associated with four counters: anunknown contact message recipient counter, an unknown contact messagesent counter, a sent unknown contact message reply counter, and areceived unknown contact message reply counter.

Determining the predicted reply rate based on the one or morecategory-specific predicted reply rates may comprise averaging the oneor more category-specific predicted reply rates by summing the one ormore category-specific predicted reply rates and dividing by the numberof category-specific predicted reply rates. Alternatively, determiningthe predicted reply rate based on the one or more category-specificpredicted reply rates may comprise selecting the highest predicted replyrate of the determined one or more category-specific predicted replyrates. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the one or morecategory-specific predicted reply rates may be unequally combined, suchas by performing a weighted average. In these embodiments, specificconnection categories may be weighted by the delivery mailboxconfiguration system 100, with the predicted reply rate comprising aweighted average of the one or more category-specific predicted replyrates according to the weights for the one or more connectioncategories.

The destination mailbox configuration component 450 may be operative toconfigure the delivery mailbox for the incoming unknown contact message425 based on the predicted reply rate. The destination mailboxconfiguration component 450 may configure the delivery mailbox for theincoming unknown contact message 425 as a primary mailbox where thepredicted reply rate meets a predefined threshold. The destinationmailbox configuration component 450 may configure the delivery mailboxfor the incoming unknown contact message 425 as a request-to-chatmailbox where the predicted reply rate falls below the predefinedthreshold. The destination mailbox configuration component 450 mayconfigure the delivery mailbox based on a comparison of the predictedreply rate and the predefined threshold. In some embodiments, differentthresholds may be used for different connection categories, such asusing a

Determining the one or more connection categories, determining thepredicted reply rate, and configuring the delivery mailbox for theincoming unknown contact message 425 based on the predicted reply ratemay be performed in response to determining that the incoming unknowncontact message 425 is a first message sent from the recipient accountto the sender account. Similarly or additionally, determining the one ormore connection categories, determining the predicted reply rate, andconfiguring the delivery mailbox for the incoming unknown contactmessage 425 based on the predicted reply rate are in response todetermining that the sender account is not on a friends list for thesender account and is not on a contacts list for the sender account. Ingeneral, determining the one or more connection categories, determiningthe predicted reply rate, configuring the delivery mailbox for theincoming unknown contact message 425 based on the predicted reply rate,and configuring the incoming unknown contact message 425 with the bannermessage 455 indicating the most-prominent connection category may beperformed in response to determining that no existing messagingrelationship exists between the sender user account and the recipientuser account. Where a previous unknown contact message was sent from thesender account to the recipient account, without a respond, anadditional incoming unknown contact message 425 may be automaticallydiscarded.

The messaging interface component 440 may be operative to transmit amessage notification to the recipient client device 120 in associationwith the incoming unknown contact message 425 in response to thepredicted reply rate meeting the predefined threshold. The messaginginterface component 440 may transmit a push notification to a pushnotification server associated with the recipient client device 120,with such association depending on one or more of a device provider forthe recipient client device 120, a device operating system provider forthe recipient client device 120, a cellular data provider for therecipient client device 120, or according to any other association as todetermine a push notification server for the recipient client device120. The messaging interface component 440 may initiate the networktransaction to transmit a push notification based on the determinationof the delivery mailbox to which to deliver the incoming unknown contactmessage 425. The messaging interface component 440 may determine whetherto perform a push notification network transaction based ondetermination of the delivery mailbox, and as such the messaginginterface component 440 determining the delivery mailbox may configurethe network activity of messaging interface component 440 for thedelivery of the incoming unknown contact message 425. Alternatively, insome embodiments, only messages from users with which the messaged userhas an existing messaging relationship may generate a notification, withno unknown-contact messages generating a notification.

The destination mailbox configuration component 450 may include a bannermessage 455 with some or all messages transmitted to client devices. Abanner message 455 may encapsulate various information to aid therecipient user in identifying the sending user. In some embodiments, abanner message 455 may be sent with all initial messages betweenusers—all messages which represent a first messaging exchange betweentwo users. In some embodiments, the banner message 455 may be configuredto display the most-prominent connection category, which may correspondto the highest-rated connection category: the connection category withthe highest category-specific predicted reply rate. The destinationmailbox configuration component 450 may identify a most-prominentconnection category of the one or more connection categories andconfigure the incoming unknown contact message 425 with a banner message455 indicating the most-prominent connection category.

In some embodiments, a recipient user declining a request-to-chatmessage from a sending user may act as a rejection of messaging withthat sending user and may mark that sender user account with therecipient user account as being blocked. The messaging system 150 mayrefrain from transmitting additional messages from the blocked senderuser account sent to the blocking recipient user account. In otherembodiments, the messaging system 150 may reevaluate recipient useraccounts once the context between the recipient user account and senderuser account. Various actions, such as joining a shared group, beingassociated with a shared event, or other explicit social-networkingactions that imply a connection between the sending user and recipientuser may remove a sender user account block to empower the sender useraccount to again request-to-chat with the recipient user account.

In some cases, a sender user account may be a business accountassociated with a business entity. A connection category associated witha business account may be an unconnected business connection category.An unconnected business category may be used to categorize the overallfrequency with which the recipient user replies to business accountswith the messaging system 150 and to categorize the overall frequencywith which the business entity is successful in prompting replies fromother users of the messaging system 150. In some embodiments, additionalbusiness-specific connection categories may be used, such asprevious-purchase business category used for businesses from which therecipient user has made a purchase known to the messaging system 150and/or the social-networking system 140, a local-business category userfor business that are local to the user's current location or homelocation, or according to any other categorization. It will beappreciated that business accounts may also be associated withconnection categories that are not specific to business accounts. Wherea banner message 455 is used, the banner message 455 may include anindication as to whether the business account is verified as beingassociated with a business entity and, if so, what business entity thebusiness account is associated with. Where multiple business connectioncategories are used, the banner message 455 may communicate which of themultiple business connection categories is a most-prominent connectioncategory between the business and the messaged user.

Where a request-to-chat message comprises a group chat message—a messagethat would include the recipient user in a group messagingconversation—the sender user account analyzed to determine the deliverymailbox configuration may be the user account of the user inviting therecipient user to the group messaging conversation. A banner message455, if any, may indicate information about this inviting user. A bannermessage 455 may also include information about prominent members of thegroup chat, such as the most active users. A banner message 445 mayinclude a most-prominent connection category for the inviting user. Abanner message 455 may alternatively or additionally include amost-prominent connection category for each of one or more most-activeusers in the group chat.

Included herein is a set of flow charts representative of exemplarymethodologies for performing novel aspects of the disclosedarchitecture. While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the oneor more methodologies shown herein, for example, in the form of a flowchart or flow diagram, are shown and described as a series of acts, itis to be understood and appreciated that the methodologies are notlimited by the order of acts, as some acts may, in accordance therewith,occur in a different order and/or concurrently with other acts from thatshown and described herein. For example, those skilled in the art willunderstand and appreciate that a methodology could alternatively berepresented as a series of interrelated states or events, such as in astate diagram. Moreover, not all acts illustrated in a methodology maybe required for a novel implementation.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a logic flow 500. The logic flow500 may be representative of some or all of the operations executed byone or more embodiments described herein.

In the illustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the logic flow 500 mayreceive an incoming message addressed to a recipient account from asender account at a messaging system at block 502.

The logic flow 500 may determine one or more connection categoriesbetween the sender account and the recipient account at block 504.

The logic flow 500 may determine a predicted reply rate for the incomingmessage based on the one or more connection categories, a recipientreply history for the recipient account, and a sender reply history forthe sender account at block 506.

The logic flow 500 may configure a delivery mailbox for the incomingmessage based on the predicted reply rate at block 508.

The logic flow 500 may identify a most-prominent connection category ofthe one or more connection categories at block 510.

The logic flow 500 may configure the incoming message with a bannermessage indicating the most-prominent connection category at block 512.

The logic flow 500 may transmit the incoming message to the configureddelivery mailbox on a client device associated with the recipientaccount at block 514.

The embodiments are not limited to this example.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of a centralized system 600. Thecentralized system 600 may implement some or all of the structure and/oroperations for the delivery mailbox configuration system 100 in a singlecomputing entity, such as entirely within a single centralized serverdevice 620.

The centralized server device 620 may comprise any electronic devicecapable of receiving, processing, and sending information for thedelivery mailbox configuration system 100. Examples of an electronicdevice may include without limitation an ultra-mobile device, a mobiledevice, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile computing device, asmart phone, a telephone, a digital telephone, a cellular telephone,ebook readers, a handset, a one-way pager, a two-way pager, a messagingdevice, a computer, a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, alaptop computer, a notebook computer, a netbook computer, a handheldcomputer, a tablet computer, a server, a server array or server farm, aweb server, a network server, an Internet server, a work station, amini-computer, a main frame computer, a supercomputer, a networkappliance, a web appliance, a distributed computing system,multiprocessor systems, processor-based systems, consumer electronics,programmable consumer electronics, game devices, television, digitaltelevision, set top box, wireless access point, base station, subscriberstation, mobile subscriber center, radio network controller, router,hub, gateway, bridge, switch, machine, or combination thereof. Theembodiments are not limited in this context.

The centralized server device 620 may execute processing operations orlogic for the delivery mailbox configuration system 100 using aprocessing component 630. The processing component 630 may comprisevarious hardware elements, software elements, or a combination of both.Examples of hardware elements may include devices, logic devices,components, processors, microprocessors, circuits, processor circuits,circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors,and so forth), integrated circuits, application specific integratedcircuits (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digital signalprocessors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), memory units,logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chipsets, and so forth. Examples of software elements may include softwarecomponents, programs, applications, computer programs, applicationprograms, system programs, software development programs, machineprograms, operating system software, middleware, firmware, softwaremodules, routines, subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, softwareinterfaces, application program interfaces (API), instruction sets,computing code, computer code, code segments, computer code segments,words, values, symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whetheran embodiment is implemented using hardware elements and/or softwareelements may vary in accordance with any number of factors, such asdesired computational rate, power levels, heat tolerances, processingcycle budget, input data rates, output data rates, memory resources,data bus speeds and other design or performance constraints, as desiredfor a given implementation.

The centralized server device 620 may execute communications operationsor logic for the delivery mailbox configuration system 100 usingcommunications component 640. The communications component 640 mayimplement any well-known communications techniques and protocols, suchas techniques suitable for use with packet-switched networks (e.g.,public networks such as the Internet, private networks such as anenterprise intranet, and so forth), circuit-switched networks (e.g., thepublic switched telephone network), or a combination of packet-switchednetworks and circuit-switched networks (with suitable gateways andtranslators). The communications component 640 may include various typesof standard communication elements, such as one or more communicationsinterfaces, network interfaces, network interface cards (NIC), radios,wireless transmitters/receivers (transceivers), wired and/or wirelesscommunication media, physical connectors, and so forth. By way ofexample, and not limitation, communication media 612 includes wiredcommunications media and wireless communications media. Examples ofwired communications media may include a wire, cable, metal leads,printed circuit boards (PCB), backplanes, switch fabrics, semiconductormaterial, twisted-pair wire, co-axial cable, fiber optics, a propagatedsignal, and so forth. Examples of wireless communications media mayinclude acoustic, radio-frequency (RF) spectrum, infrared and otherwireless media.

The centralized server device 620 may communicate with other devices610, 650 over a communications media 612 using communications signals614 via the communications component 640. The devices 610, 650 may beinternal or external to the centralized server device 620 as desired fora given implementation. In some embodiments, devices 610, 650 maycorrespond to client devices, such as recipient client device 120, knowncontact client device 160, predicted interest client device 170,predicted non-interest client device 180, and sender client device 220.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of a distributed system 700. Thedistributed system 700 may distribute portions of the structure and/oroperations for the delivery mailbox configuration system 100 acrossmultiple computing entities. Examples of distributed system 700 mayinclude without limitation a client-server architecture, a 3-tierarchitecture, an N-tier architecture, a tightly-coupled or clusteredarchitecture, a peer-to-peer architecture, a master-slave architecture,a shared database architecture, and other types of distributed systems.The embodiments are not limited in this context.

The distributed system 700 may comprise a messaging interface serverdevice 710 and a destination mailbox configuration server device 710. Ingeneral, the server devices 710, 750 may be the same or similar to thecentralized server device 620 as described with reference to FIG. 6. Forinstance, the server devices 710, 750 may each comprise a processingcomponent 730 and a communications component 740 which are the same orsimilar to the processing component 630 and the communications component640, respectively, as described with reference to FIG. 6. In anotherexample, the server devices 710, 750 may communicate over acommunications media 712 using communications signals 714 via thecommunications components 740.

The messaging interface server device 710 may comprise or employ one ormore client programs that operate to perform various methodologies inaccordance with the described embodiments. In one embodiment, forexample, the messaging interface server device 710 may implement themessaging interface component 440. It will be appreciated that in someembodiments a plurality of messaging interface server devices may beused, with each one executing a messaging interface component 440.

The destination mailbox configuration server device 710 may comprise oremploy one or more server programs that operate to perform variousmethodologies in accordance with the described embodiments. In oneembodiment, for example, the destination mailbox configuration serverdevice 710 may implement the destination mailbox configuration component450. It will be appreciated that in some embodiments a plurality ofdestination mailbox configuration server devices may be used, with eachone executing a destination mailbox configuration component 450.

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of an exemplary computing architecture800 suitable for implementing various embodiments as previouslydescribed. In one embodiment, the computing architecture 800 maycomprise or be implemented as part of an electronic device. Examples ofan electronic device may include those described with reference to FIG.6 and FIG. 7, among others. The embodiments are not limited in thiscontext.

As used in this application, the terms “system” and “component” areintended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, acombination of hardware and software, software, or software inexecution, examples of which are provided by the exemplary computingarchitecture 800. For example, a component can be, but is not limited tobeing, a process running on a processor, a processor, a hard disk drive,multiple storage drives (of optical and/or magnetic storage medium), anobject, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or acomputer. By way of illustration, both an application running on aserver and the server can be a component. One or more components canreside within a process and/or thread of execution, and a component canbe localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or morecomputers. Further, components may be communicatively coupled to eachother by various types of communications media to coordinate operations.The coordination may involve the uni-directional or bi-directionalexchange of information. For instance, the components may communicateinformation in the form of signals communicated over the communicationsmedia. The information can be implemented as signals allocated tovarious signal lines. In such allocations, each message is a signal.Further embodiments, however, may alternatively employ data messages.Such data messages may be sent across various connections. Exemplaryconnections include parallel interfaces, serial interfaces, and businterfaces.

The computing architecture 800 includes various common computingelements, such as one or more processors, multi-core processors,co-processors, memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals,interfaces, oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards,multimedia input/output (I/O) components, power supplies, and so forth.The embodiments, however, are not limited to implementation by thecomputing architecture 800.

As shown in FIG. 8, the computing architecture 800 comprises aprocessing unit 804, a system memory 806 and a system bus 808. Theprocessing unit 804 can be any of various commercially availableprocessors, including without limitation an AMD® Athlon®, Duron® andOpteron® processors; ARM® application, embedded and secure processors;IBM® and Motorola® DragonBall® and PowerPC® processors; IBM and Sony®Cell processors; Intel® Celeron®, Core (2) Duo®, Itanium®, Pentium®,Xeon®, and XScale® processors; and similar processors. Dualmicroprocessors, multi-core processors, and other multi-processorarchitectures may also be employed as the processing unit 804.

The system bus 808 provides an interface for system componentsincluding, but not limited to, the system memory 806 to the processingunit 804. The system bus 808 can be any of several types of busstructure that may further interconnect to a memory bus (with or withouta memory controller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of avariety of commercially available bus architectures. Interface adaptersmay connect to the system bus 808 via a slot architecture. Example slotarchitectures may include without limitation Accelerated Graphics Port(AGP), Card Bus, (Extended) Industry Standard Architecture ((E)ISA),Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), NuBus, Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (Extended) (PCI(X)), PCI Express, Personal Computer MemoryCard International Association (PCMCIA), and the like.

The computing architecture 800 may comprise or implement variousarticles of manufacture. An article of manufacture may comprise acomputer-readable storage medium to store logic. Examples of acomputer-readable storage medium may include any tangible media capableof storing electronic data, including volatile memory or non-volatilememory, removable or non-removable memory, erasable or non-erasablememory, writeable or re-writeable memory, and so forth. Examples oflogic may include executable computer program instructions implementedusing any suitable type of code, such as source code, compiled code,interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code,object-oriented code, visual code, and the like. Embodiments may also beat least partly implemented as instructions contained in or on anon-transitory computer-readable medium, which may be read and executedby one or more processors to enable performance of the operationsdescribed herein.

The system memory 806 may include various types of computer-readablestorage media in the form of one or more higher speed memory units, suchas read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM(DRAM), Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), staticRAM (SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymermemory such as ferroelectric polymer memory, ovonic memory, phase changeor ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)memory, magnetic or optical cards, an array of devices such as RedundantArray of Independent Disks (RAID) drives, solid state memory devices(e.g., USB memory, solid state drives (SSD) and any other type ofstorage media suitable for storing information. In the illustratedembodiment shown in FIG. 8, the system memory 806 can includenon-volatile memory 810 and/or volatile memory 812. A basic input/outputsystem (BIOS) can be stored in the non-volatile memory 810.

The computer 802 may include various types of computer-readable storagemedia in the form of one or more lower speed memory units, including aninternal (or external) hard disk drive (HDD) 814, a magnetic floppy diskdrive (FDD) 816 to read from or write to a removable magnetic disk 818,and an optical disk drive 820 to read from or write to a removableoptical disk 822 (e.g., a CD-ROM or DVD). The HDD 814, FDD 816 andoptical disk drive 820 can be connected to the system bus 808 by a HDDinterface 824, an FDD interface 826 and an optical drive interface 828,respectively. The HDD interface 824 for external drive implementationscan include at least one or both of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE1394 interface technologies.

The drives and associated computer-readable media provide volatileand/or nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executableinstructions, and so forth. For example, a number of program modules canbe stored in the drives and memory units 810, 812, including anoperating system 830, one or more application programs 832, otherprogram modules 834, and program data 836. In one embodiment, the one ormore application programs 832, other program modules 834, and programdata 836 can include, for example, the various applications and/orcomponents of the delivery mailbox configuration system 100.

A user can enter commands and information into the computer 802 throughone or more wire/wireless input devices, for example, a keyboard 838 anda pointing device, such as a mouse 840. Other input devices may includemicrophones, infra-red (IR) remote controls, radio-frequency (RF) remotecontrols, game pads, stylus pens, card readers, dongles, finger printreaders, gloves, graphics tablets, joysticks, keyboards, retina readers,touch screens (e.g., capacitive, resistive, etc.), trackballs,trackpads, sensors, styluses, and the like. These and other inputdevices are often connected to the processing unit 804 through an inputdevice interface 842 that is coupled to the system bus 808, but can beconnected by other interfaces such as a parallel port, IEEE 1394 serialport, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, and so forth.

A monitor 844 or other type of display device is also connected to thesystem bus 808 via an interface, such as a video adaptor 846. Themonitor 844 may be internal or external to the computer 802. In additionto the monitor 844, a computer typically includes other peripheraloutput devices, such as speakers, printers, and so forth.

The computer 802 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections via wire and/or wireless communications to one or moreremote computers, such as a remote computer 848. The remote computer 848can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, a personal computer,portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainment appliance, a peerdevice or other common network node, and typically includes many or allof the elements described relative to the computer 802, although, forpurposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device 850 is illustrated.The logical connections depicted include wire/wireless connectivity to alocal area network (LAN) 852 and/or larger networks, for example, a widearea network (WAN) 854. Such LAN and WAN networking environments arecommonplace in offices and companies, and facilitate enterprise-widecomputer networks, such as intranets, all of which may connect to aglobal communications network, for example, the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 802 is connectedto the LAN 852 through a wire and/or wireless communication networkinterface or adaptor 856. The adaptor 856 can facilitate wire and/orwireless communications to the LAN 852, which may also include awireless access point disposed thereon for communicating with thewireless functionality of the adaptor 856.

When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 802 can includea modem 858, or is connected to a communications server on the WAN 854,or has other means for establishing communications over the WAN 854,such as by way of the Internet. The modem 858, which can be internal orexternal and a wire and/or wireless device, connects to the system bus808 via the input device interface 842. In a networked environment,program modules depicted relative to the computer 802, or portionsthereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device 850. It willbe appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary andother means of establishing a communications link between the computerscan be used.

The computer 802 is operable to communicate with wire and wirelessdevices or entities using the IEEE 802 family of standards, such aswireless devices operatively disposed in wireless communication (e.g.,IEEE 802.8 over-the-air modulation techniques). This includes at leastWi-Fi (or Wireless Fidelity), WiMax, and Bluetooth™ wirelesstechnologies, among others. Thus, the communication can be a predefinedstructure as with a conventional network or simply an ad hoccommunication between at least two devices. Wi-Fi networks use radiotechnologies called IEEE 802.8x (a, b, g, n, etc.) to provide secure,reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Fi network can be used toconnect computers to each other, to the Internet, and to wire networks(which use IEEE 802.3-related media and functions).

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary communicationsarchitecture 900 suitable for implementing various embodiments aspreviously described. The communications architecture 900 includesvarious common communications elements, such as a transmitter, receiver,transceiver, radio, network interface, baseband processor, antenna,amplifiers, filters, power supplies, and so forth. The embodiments,however, are not limited to implementation by the communicationsarchitecture 900.

As shown in FIG. 9, the communications architecture 900 comprisesincludes one or more clients 902 and servers 904. The clients 902 mayimplement the recipient client device 120, known contact client device160, predicted interest client device 170, predicted non-interest clientdevice 180, and sender client device 220. The servers 904 may implementthe centralized server device 620, the messaging interface server device710, and/or the destination mailbox configuration server device 750. Theclients 902 and the servers 904 are operatively connected to one or morerespective client data stores 908 and server data stores 910 that can beemployed to store information local to the respective clients 902 andservers 904, such as cookies and/or associated contextual information.

The clients 902 and the servers 904 may communicate information betweeneach other using a communication framework 906. The communicationsframework 906 may implement any well-known communications techniques andprotocols. The communications framework 906 may be implemented as apacket-switched network (e.g., public networks such as the Internet,private networks such as an enterprise intranet, and so forth), acircuit-switched network (e.g., the public switched telephone network),or a combination of a packet-switched network and a circuit-switchednetwork (with suitable gateways and translators).

The communications framework 906 may implement various networkinterfaces arranged to accept, communicate, and connect to acommunications network. A network interface may be regarded as aspecialized form of an input output interface. Network interfaces mayemploy connection protocols including without limitation direct connect,Ethernet (e.g., thick, thin, twisted pair 10/100/1000 Base T, and thelike), token ring, wireless network interfaces, cellular networkinterfaces, IEEE 802.11a-x network interfaces, IEEE 802.16 networkinterfaces, IEEE 802.20 network interfaces, and the like. Further,multiple network interfaces may be used to engage with variouscommunications network types. For example, multiple network interfacesmay be employed to allow for the communication over broadcast,multicast, and unicast networks. Should processing requirements dictatea greater amount speed and capacity, distributed network controllerarchitectures may similarly be employed to pool, load balance, andotherwise increase the communicative bandwidth required by clients 902and the servers 904. A communications network may be any one and thecombination of wired and/or wireless networks including withoutlimitation a direct interconnection, a secured custom connection, aprivate network (e.g., an enterprise intranet), a public network (e.g.,the Internet), a Personal Area Network (PAN), a Local Area Network(LAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), an Operating Missions as Nodeson the Internet (OMNI), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a wireless network, acellular network, and other communications networks.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a device 1000 for use in amulticarrier OFDM system, such as the delivery mailbox configurationsystem 100. Device 1000 may implement, for example, software components1060 as described with reference to delivery mailbox configurationsystem 100 and/or a logic circuit 1035. The logic circuit 1035 mayinclude physical circuits to perform operations described for thedelivery mailbox configuration system 100. As shown in FIG. 10, device1000 may include a radio interface 1010, baseband circuitry 1020, andcomputing platform 1030, although embodiments are not limited to thisconfiguration.

The device 1000 may implement some or all of the structure and/oroperations for the delivery mailbox configuration system 100 and/orlogic circuit 1035 in a single computing entity, such as entirely withina single device. Alternatively, the device 1000 may distribute portionsof the structure and/or operations for the delivery mailboxconfiguration system 100 and/or logic circuit 1035 across multiplecomputing entities using a distributed system architecture, such as aclient-server architecture, a 3-tier architecture, an N-tierarchitecture, a tightly-coupled or clustered architecture, apeer-to-peer architecture, a master-slave architecture, a shareddatabase architecture, and other types of distributed systems. Theembodiments are not limited in this context.

In one embodiment, radio interface 1010 may include a component orcombination of components adapted for transmitting and/or receivingsingle carrier or multi-carrier modulated signals (e.g., includingcomplementary code keying (CCK) and/or orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexing (OFDM) symbols) although the embodiments are not limited toany specific over-the-air interface or modulation scheme. Radiointerface 1010 may include, for example, a receiver 1012, a transmitter1016 and/or a frequency synthesizer 1014. Radio interface 1010 mayinclude bias controls, a crystal oscillator and/or one or more antennas1018. In another embodiment, radio interface 1010 may use externalvoltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), surface acoustic wave filters,intermediate frequency (IF) filters and/or RF filters, as desired. Dueto the variety of potential RF interface designs an expansivedescription thereof is omitted.

Baseband circuitry 1020 may communicate with radio interface 1010 toprocess receive and/or transmit signals and may include, for example, ananalog-to-digital converter 1022 for down converting received signals, adigital-to-analog converter 1024 for up converting signals fortransmission. Further, baseband circuitry 1020 may include a baseband orphysical layer (PHY) processing circuit 1056 for PHY link layerprocessing of respective receive/transmit signals. Baseband circuitry1020 may include, for example, a processing circuit 1028 for mediumaccess control (MAC)/data link layer processing. Baseband circuitry 1020may include a memory controller 1032 for communicating with processingcircuit 1028 and/or a computing platform 1030, for example, via one ormore interfaces 1034.

In some embodiments, PHY processing circuit 1026 may include a frameconstruction and/or detection module, in combination with additionalcircuitry such as a buffer memory, to construct and/or deconstructcommunication frames, such as radio frames. Alternatively or inaddition, MAC processing circuit 1028 may share processing for certainof these functions or perform these processes independent of PHYprocessing circuit 1026. In some embodiments, MAC and PHY processing maybe integrated into a single circuit.

The computing platform 1030 may provide computing functionality for thedevice 1000. As shown, the computing platform 1030 may include aprocessing component 1040. In addition to, or alternatively of, thebaseband circuitry 1020, the device 1000 may execute processingoperations or logic for the delivery mailbox configuration system 100and logic circuit 1035 using the processing component 1040. Theprocessing component 1040 (and/or PHY 1026 and/or MAC 1028) may comprisevarious hardware elements, software elements, or a combination of both.Examples of hardware elements may include devices, logic devices,components, processors, microprocessors, circuits, processor circuits,circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors,and so forth), integrated circuits, application specific integratedcircuits (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digital signalprocessors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), memory units,logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chipsets, and so forth. Examples of software elements may include softwarecomponents, programs, applications, computer programs, applicationprograms, system programs, software development programs, machineprograms, operating system software, middleware, firmware, softwaremodules, routines, subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, softwareinterfaces, application program interfaces (API), instruction sets,computing code, computer code, code segments, computer code segments,words, values, symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whetheran embodiment is implemented using hardware elements and/or softwareelements may vary in accordance with any number of factors, such asdesired computational rate, power levels, heat tolerances, processingcycle budget, input data rates, output data rates, memory resources,data bus speeds and other design or performance constraints, as desiredfor a given implementation.

The computing platform 1030 may further include other platformcomponents 1050. Other platform components 1050 include common computingelements, such as one or more processors, multi-core processors,co-processors, memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals,interfaces, oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards,multimedia input/output (I/O) components (e.g., digital displays), powersupplies, and so forth. Examples of memory units may include withoutlimitation various types of computer readable and machine readablestorage media in the form of one or more higher speed memory units, suchas read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM(DRAM), Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), staticRAM (SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymermemory such as ferroelectric polymer memory, ovonic memory, phase changeor ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)memory, magnetic or optical cards, an array of devices such as RedundantArray of Independent Disks (RAID) drives, solid state memory devices(e.g., USB memory, solid state drives (SSD) and any other type ofstorage media suitable for storing information.

Device 1000 may be, for example, an ultra-mobile device, a mobiledevice, a fixed device, a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a mobile computing device, a smart phone, atelephone, a digital telephone, a cellular telephone, user equipment,eBook readers, a handset, a one-way pager, a two-way pager, a messagingdevice, a computer, a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, alaptop computer, a notebook computer, a netbook computer, a handheldcomputer, a tablet computer, a server, a server array or server farm, aweb server, a network server, an Internet server, a work station, amini-computer, a main frame computer, a supercomputer, a networkappliance, a web appliance, a distributed computing system,multiprocessor systems, processor-based systems, consumer electronics,programmable consumer electronics, game devices, television, digitaltelevision, set top box, wireless access point, base station, node B,evolved node B (eNB), subscriber station, mobile subscriber center,radio network controller, router, hub, gateway, bridge, switch, machine,or combination thereof. Accordingly, functions and/or specificconfigurations of device 1000 described herein, may be included oromitted in various embodiments of device 1000, as suitably desired. Insome embodiments, device 1000 may be configured to be compatible withprotocols and frequencies associated one or more of the 3GPP LTESpecifications and/or IEEE 1002.16 Standards for WMANs, and/or otherbroadband wireless networks, cited herein, although the embodiments arenot limited in this respect.

Embodiments of device 1000 may be implemented using single input singleoutput (SISO) architectures. However, certain implementations mayinclude multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 1018) for transmission and/orreception using adaptive antenna techniques for beamforming or spatialdivision multiple access (SDMA) and/or using MIMO communicationtechniques.

The components and features of device 1000 may be implemented using anycombination of discrete circuitry, application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), logic gates and/or single chip architectures. Further,the features of device 1000 may be implemented using microcontrollers,programmable logic arrays and/or microprocessors or any combination ofthe foregoing where suitably appropriate. It is noted that hardware,firmware and/or software elements may be collectively or individuallyreferred to herein as “logic” or “circuit.”

It should be appreciated that the exemplary device 1000 shown in theblock diagram of FIG. 10 may represent one functionally descriptiveexample of many potential implementations. Accordingly, division,omission or inclusion of block functions depicted in the accompanyingfigures does not infer that the hardware components, circuits, softwareand/or elements for implementing these functions would be necessarily bedivided, omitted, or included in embodiments.

A computer-implemented method may comprise receiving an incoming messageaddressed to a recipient account from a sender account at a messagingsystem; determining one or more connection categories between the senderaccount and the recipient account; determining a predicted reply ratefor the incoming message based on the one or more connection categories,a recipient reply history for the recipient account, and a sender replyhistory for the sender account; and configuring a delivery mailbox forthe incoming message based on the predicted reply rate; and transmittingthe incoming message to the configured delivery mailbox on a clientdevice associated with the recipient account.

A computer-implemented method may further comprise identifying amost-prominent connection category of the one or more connectioncategories; and configuring the incoming message with a banner messageindicating the most-prominent connection category.

A computer-implemented method may further comprise wherein determiningthe one or more connection categories, determining the predicted replyrate, configuring the delivery mailbox for the incoming message based onthe predicted reply rate, and configuring the incoming message with thebanner message indicating the most-prominent connection category are inresponse to determining that the incoming message is a first messagesent from the recipient account to the sender account.

A computer-implemented method may further comprise wherein determiningthe one or more connection categories, determining the predicted replyrate, and configuring the delivery mailbox for the incoming messagebased on the predicted reply rate are in response to determining thatthe sender account is not on a friends list for the sender account andis not on a contacts list for the sender account.

A computer-implemented method may further comprise the one or moreconnection categories comprising one or more of a shared socialnetworking group category, a shared calendar event category, aphysical-proximity category, and an unconnected category.

A computer-implemented method may further comprise determining one ormore category-specific predicted reply rates, wherein each of the one ormore category-specific predicated reply rates is associated with one ofthe one or more connection categories; and determining the predictedreply rate based on the one or more category-specific predicted replyrates.

A computer-implemented method may further comprise wherein each of theone or more category-specific predicted reply rates is a combination ofa recipient historic reply rate for a connection category and a senderhistoric reply rate for the connection category.

A computer-implemented method may further comprise configuring thedelivery mailbox for the incoming message as a primary mailbox where thepredicted reply rate meets a predefined threshold; and configuring thedelivery mailbox for the incoming message as a request-to-chat mailboxwhere the predicted reply rate falls below the predefined threshold.

A computer-implemented method may further comprise transmitting amessage notification to the client device in association with theincoming message in response to the predicted reply rate meeting apredefined threshold.

An apparatus may comprise a processor circuit on a device; a networkinterface controller on the device; a messaging interface componentoperative on the processor circuit to receive an incoming messageaddressed to a recipient account from a sender account at a messagingsystem; and transmit the incoming message to a configured deliverymailbox on a client device associated with the recipient account usingthe network interface controller; and a destination mailboxconfiguration component operative to determine one or more connectioncategories between the sender account and the recipient account;determine a predicted reply rate for the incoming message based on theone or more connection categories, a recipient reply history for therecipient account, and a sender reply history for the sender account;and configure the delivery mailbox for the incoming message based on thepredicted reply rate. The apparatus may be operative to implement any ofthe computer-implemented methods described herein.

At least one computer-readable storage medium may comprise instructionsthat, when executed, cause a system to perform any of thecomputer-implemented methods described herein.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “one embodiment”or “an embodiment” along with their derivatives. These terms mean that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Theappearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in thespecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.Further, some embodiments may be described using the expression“coupled” and “connected” along with their derivatives. These terms arenot necessarily intended as synonyms for each other. For example, someembodiments may be described using the terms “connected” and/or“coupled” to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physicalor electrical contact with each other. The term “coupled,” however, mayalso mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with eachother, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

With general reference to notations and nomenclature used herein, thedetailed descriptions herein may be presented in terms of programprocedures executed on a computer or network of computers. Theseprocedural descriptions and representations are used by those skilled inthe art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to othersskilled in the art.

A procedure is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistentsequence of operations leading to a desired result. These operations arethose requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually,though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical,magnetic or optical signals capable of being stored, transferred,combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient attimes, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to thesesignals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers,or the like. It should be noted, however, that all of these and similarterms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities andare merely convenient labels applied to those quantities.

Further, the manipulations performed are often referred to in terms,such as adding or comparing, which are commonly associated with mentaloperations performed by a human operator. No such capability of a humanoperator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of theoperations described herein which form part of one or more embodiments.Rather, the operations are machine operations. Useful machines forperforming operations of various embodiments include general purposedigital computers or similar devices.

Various embodiments also relate to apparatus or systems for performingthese operations. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purpose or it may comprise a general purpose computer asselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. The procedures presented herein are not inherently relatedto a particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposemachines may be used with programs written in accordance with theteachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct morespecialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The requiredstructure for a variety of these machines will appear from thedescription given.

It is emphasized that the Abstract of the Disclosure is provided toallow a reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technicaldisclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not beused to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Inaddition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen thatvarious features are grouped together in a single embodiment for thepurpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is notto be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimedembodiments require more features than are expressly recited in eachclaim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matterlies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thusthe following claims are hereby incorporated into the DetailedDescription, with each claim standing on its own as a separateembodiment. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which”are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms“comprising” and “wherein,” respectively. Moreover, the terms “first,”“second,” “third,” and so forth, are used merely as labels, and are notintended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

What has been described above includes examples of the disclosedarchitecture. It is, of course, not possible to describe everyconceivable combination of components and/or methodologies, but one ofordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinationsand permutations are possible. Accordingly, the novel architecture isintended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variationsthat fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:receiving an incoming message addressed to a recipient account from asender account at a messaging system; determining one or more connectioncategories between the sender account and the recipient account;identifying a most-prominent connection category of the one or moreconnection categories; configuring the incoming message with a bannermessage indicating the most-prominent connection category; andtransmitting the incoming message to a client device associated with therecipient account.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:configuring the incoming message for viewing via an unknown-contact viewcontrol of a primary mailbox.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereindetermining the one or more connection categories and configuring theincoming message with the banner message indicating the most-prominentconnection category are in response to determining that the incomingmessage is a first message sent from the recipient account to the senderaccount.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or moreconnection categories and configuring the incoming message with thebanner message indicating the most-prominent connection category are inresponse to determining that the sender account is not on a friends listfor the sender account and is not on a contacts list for the senderaccount.
 5. The method of claim 1, the one or more connection categoriescomprising one or more of a shared social networking group category, ashared calendar event category, a physical-proximity category, and anunconnected category.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:determining a predicted reply rate for the incoming message based on theone or more connection categories, a recipient reply history for therecipient account, and a sender reply history for the sender account;and configuring the incoming message for viewing via an unknown-contactview control of a primary mailbox where the predicted reply rate meets apredefined threshold.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:determining one or more category-specific predicted reply rates, whereineach of the one or more category-specific predicated reply rates isassociated with one of the one or more connection categories, whereineach of the one or more category-specific predicted reply rates is acombination of a recipient historic reply rate for a connection categoryand a sender historic reply rate for the connection category; anddetermining the predicted reply rate based on the one or morecategory-specific predicted reply rates.
 8. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining a predicted reply rate for the incomingmessage based on the one or more connection categories, a recipientreply history for the recipient account, and a sender reply history forthe sender account; and transmitting a message notification to theclient device in association with the incoming message in response tothe predicted reply rate meeting a predefined threshold.
 9. Anapparatus, comprising: a processor circuit on a device; a networkinterface controller on the device; a messaging interface componentoperative on the processor circuit to receive an incoming messageaddressed to a recipient account from a sender account at a messagingsystem; and transmit the incoming message to a client device associatedwith the recipient account; and a destination mailbox configurationcomponent operative to determine one or more connection categoriesbetween the sender account and the recipient account; identify amost-prominent connection category of the one or more connectioncategories; configure the incoming message with a banner messageindicating the most-prominent connection category; and configure theincoming message for viewing via an unknown-contact view control of aprimary mailbox.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein determining theone or more connection categories, configuring the incoming message withthe banner message indicating the most-prominent connection category,and configuring the incoming message for viewing via an unknown-contactview control of a primary mailbox are in response to determining thatthe incoming message is a first message sent from the recipient accountto the sender account and that that the sender account is not on afriends list for the sender account and is not on a contacts list forthe sender account.
 11. The apparatus of claim 9, the one or moreconnection categories comprising one or more of a shared socialnetworking group category, a shared calendar event category, aphysical-proximity category, and an unconnected category.
 12. Theapparatus of claim 9, wherein configuring the incoming message forviewing via an unknown-contact view control of a primary mailbox is inresponse to determining that a predicted reply rate meets a predefinedthreshold, further comprising: the destination mailbox configurationcomponent operative to determine one or more category-specific predictedreply rates, wherein each of the one or more category-specificpredicated reply rates is associated with one of the one or moreconnection categories; and determine the predicted reply rate based onthe one or more category-specific predicted reply rates.
 13. Theapparatus of claim 12, wherein each of the one or more category-specificpredicted reply rates is a combination of a recipient historic replyrate for a connection category and a sender historic reply rate for theconnection category
 14. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:the destination mailbox component operative to determining a predictedreply rate for the incoming message based on the one or more connectioncategories, a recipient reply history for the recipient account, and asender reply history for the sender account; and the messaging interfacecomponent operative to transmit a message notification to the clientdevice in association with the incoming message in response to thepredicted reply rate meeting a predefined threshold.
 15. At least onecomputer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, whenexecuted, cause a system to: receive an incoming message addressed to arecipient account from a sender account at a messaging system; determineone or more connection categories between the sender account and therecipient account; identify a most-prominent connection category of theone or more connection categories; configure the incoming message with abanner message indicating the most-prominent connection category;configure the incoming message for viewing via an unknown-contact viewcontrol of a primary mailbox; and transmit the incoming message to aclient device associated with the recipient account.
 16. Thecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein determining theone or more connection categories, configuring the incoming message withthe banner message indicating the most-prominent connection category,and configuring the incoming message for viewing via an unknown-contactview control of a primary mailbox are in response to determining thatthe incoming message is a first message sent from the recipient accountto the sender account and that the sender account is not on a friendslist for the sender account and is not on a contacts list for the senderaccount.
 17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the oneor more connection categories comprising one or more of a shared socialnetworking group category, a shared calendar event category, aphysical-proximity category, and an unconnected category.
 18. Thecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein configuring theincoming message for viewing via an unknown-contact view control of aprimary mailbox is in response to determining that a predicted replyrate meets a predefined threshold, comprising further instructions that,when executed, cause a system: determine one or more category-specificpredicted reply rates, wherein each of the one or more category-specificpredicated reply rates is associated with one of the one or moreconnection categories; and determine the predicted reply rate based onthe one or more category-specific predicted reply rates.
 19. Thecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein each of the one ormore category-specific predicted reply rates is a combination of arecipient historic reply rate for a connection category and a senderhistoric reply rate for the connection category.
 20. Thecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising furtherinstructions that, when executed, cause a system to: determining apredicted reply rate for the incoming message based on the one or moreconnection categories, a recipient reply history for the recipientaccount, and a sender reply history for the sender account; and transmita message notification to the client device in association with theincoming message in response to the predicted reply rate meeting apredefined threshold.